


Among Us Fanfiction

by Chiruka_Hana



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Among Us, Fanfiction, Fiction, Mystery, for fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27610606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiruka_Hana/pseuds/Chiruka_Hana
Summary: Orange is stuck in space with his crewmates. It seems like one of them has bad intentions towards the crew. Will he and his other crewmates be able to make it out alive? Or will the imposter among them be victorious?I played Among Us for the second time recently and got inspired lol. I want to write more than just this so hopefully I will!! I have plans— Sorta.
Kudos: 3





	1. 1

It wasn’t even a week into the mission when I realized. I didn’t want to believe it. Here we are, all alone, in space. There’s no way this mission was a hoax. I was so happy to be chosen as one of the legendary astronauts to brave the mysteries of space with my crewmates. It couldn’t have all been a setup. It couldn’t have been that those who chose us were actually sending us all to our deaths. 

Aboard the spaceship was relatively peaceful at first. We had all gone through training together on Earth, so we already knew how to get along with each other. We were able to expertly complete our tasks everyday and keep the spaceship in working condition. We wouldn’t be able to contact those on Earth until a week into the mission. So far, I felt alright though. I’m with my crewmates and can stay focused on my tasks; instead of thinking about how we were isolated in space. 

When almost a week was up, strange things started to happen. Everyone was getting ready to sleep for the day. I was getting ready myself. I wanted to check around the spaceship one more time before I went to bed. I thought I was the only one awake by now. 

After patrolling the entire ship, I reached the door to where we sleep. That’s when the lights flickered. I hesitated a moment, wondering what that was about. Then I reached for the door again but the lights completely went out. 

I froze with my hand outstretched. Why did the lights go out? I didn’t turn them off. Everyone should be asleep. When I passed by electrical, everything seemed to be fine. I felt fear constrict my whole body. What do I do…? How did this happen…? Why do I feel a sense of dread…? 

No, no, it’s just that it’s dark now. The dark must be getting to me. I’ve trained for this, haven’t I? I have a flashlight strapped to my suit for moments like these. I grab my flashlight and flick it on. I just see the door to our sleeping quarters in front of me. Nothing out of the ordinary. I turn around and start down the hallway. 

I head to electrical. I keep my eyes forward and focus on moving. I can’t help but be nervous everytime I round a dark corner. I eventually make it to electrical safely. I cautiously enter, looking around, filling each dark space with the light of my flashlight. There’s not a soul. 

I walk up to the source of the problem. I open the panel on the wall and the wiring is revealed. I’m shocked to see that it’s cut. 

I whip around, shining my flashlight. A chill shoots down my spine. This wasn’t by some strange accident… The wiring was cut. By someone. Wasn't everyone asleep…? I didn’t see anyone on my patrol. I didn’t hear anything. How in the world, or space, did this happen…? 

My heart pounded loudly in my chest. Even though I don’t know how this happened, I should at least try and fix the wiring now. I’ve trained for this too. I can do it. Everything will be alright. I turn back around and get to work on the wiring. My hands are shaking but I will them to stop. 

The wiring is finally fixed. I sigh with relief. But I have no time to relax when I feel eyes on me. There’s murderous intent in the air. Adrenaline kicks in and I slam the wiring panel shut. I reach for a light switch and turn it on. Thankfully, the lights flicker to life. I search the room, breathing heavily. It’s completely and utterly deserted. 

I feel the murderous intent in the air dissipate. I don’t feel eyes on me anymore. I’m going to have a heart attack at this rate… I don’t want to die so young… But maybe I was about to die from something other than a heart attack just then. The thought makes my body feel heavy with dread. 

I hold my flashlight out, despite the lights being on again. Somehow it makes me feel safe. I can use it as a weapon if I need to. I make my way back to our sleeping quarters. I unconsciously swallow hard before opening the door. I glance around and count the people inside. Everyone is accounted for. Then… Who was watching me…? 

I barely got any sleep that night. I’m dragging in the morning. I try to eat in the cafeteria with everyone, but I’m too tired. One of my crewmates, Red, comes up to me. 

“You look dead! Something happen?” He asks with a smile. 

I look up at him. “Uh… kinda…” Should I tell him? Would he believe me if I told him? Even now I wonder if that was all a dream. If only the fear I felt last night wasn’t still embedded into my very soul… 

Red sat down next to me. “Want to tell me about it? We gotta look after each other, after all. If you aren’t completing your tasks everyday because something is off with you, then that brings us all down. But don’t worry too much about that, I’m asking as a friend right now! Haha!” He hits me on the back, hard. 

Red is certainly lively and friendly, but I’d prefer if he didn’t always hit me on the back so hard… It actually hurts. 

“I just had a strange experience last night.” I say. I rub my eyes with my fingers to try and wake up. “The lights went out after I patrolled the whole ship… So I went to see what was wrong in electrical. That’s when it was really strange… The wiring looked cut and I felt like someone was watching me…” 

Red paused to think. “That is strange. Weren’t the rest of us asleep? I fell asleep almost immediately because I was so tired.” 

“Yeah, when I got back to our sleeping quarters, I saw everyone was accounted for and asleep. I’m stumped as to what happened last night.” 

“Weird… I could check out electrical with you today. Maybe I can find a reason for why that happened. Would that help put you at ease?” 

“Yeah… If you can, that would probably help a lot…” I feel a bit relieved knowing Red will check it out with me today. He probably just wants to see for himself if the wiring really was cut, but I don’t care about his motive right now. 

After we finish eating, we head to electrical. I’m a bit unnerved to walk down these hallways again. The lights are working just fine, but it feels off because of my experience. Red walks in front of me. His back is somehow comforting. I was all alone last night, after all. 

Red opens the panel for the wiring. I was worried that it would look fine, like it was all a dream. But the wiring looked all messed up because it got cut and I tried to fix it with my shabby skills. Red reached in and fixed the wiring a bit better. I’m surprised the lights came back on when I did such a terrible job… 

Once Red was satisfied, he closed the panel. “Definitely looks like it was cut. You did a good job fixing it last night though.” He turns around and gives me a grin. 

“Right… But how did this happen? I didn’t cut it. Everyone else looked like they were asleep. Who would want to cut it and sabotage the ship?” I ask. 

“Good question. We can’t be sure what happened for right now. Let’s ask the others and continue our tasks. We can see if anything else is wrong with the ship.” 

“Alright…” I guess that’s really all we can do for now. I don’t want to be alone tonight again… I’ll probably be too tired to stay up alone anyway. 

Red and I call everyone to the cafeteria again to discuss the lights and cut wires. Some of them reluctantly arrived, irritated that we interrupted their tasks. The rest were confused and looked worried at this sudden meeting. 

“Sorry to call you all here.” Red said, starting the meeting. Everyone sat at the tables but I stood next to Red. “May I ask you all what time you went to bed and if you stayed asleep the entire time until morning?” 

“Why do you want to know?” Blue asked, folding her arms. “Are you accusing me of something?” She glared. 

“Well…” Red’s smile was strained. “I’d just like to know because Orange told me something strange happened last night… I wanted to see if any of you knew anything about it. First I’d like to check all of your alibis.” 

“Alibis? Are you trying to play detective? What was Orange doing up last night anyway?” Blue’s glare turned to me. She’s scary… But if you were to ask me if the eyes last night felt like hers, I’d have to say that they don’t. It was different. It was a hundred times more malicious… 

“I wanted to patrol the ship one last time before I went to bed.” I spoke up. “Everything seemed fine so I got back to the door to our sleeping quarters. Then the lights flickered and went out. I had to go check it out and fix it. But when I got there and saw what was wrong…” 

Red didn’t let me finish. “So can you all confirm that you were asleep during this time? You didn’t get up for a drink, or a snack? You didn’t notice the lights being strange?” 

Blue still looked like she was suspicious of me. Then she shook her head. “I was asleep the whole time. I didn’t notice that anything was wrong.” 

We looked to the next person, Pink. She looked a bit startled at all the attention on her. She quickly shook her head. “I was asleep too! I didn’t see anything…” 

Then Yellow spoke. “But what happened? What did you see in electrical?? It wasn’t a ghost, was it!?” 

“Ghosts don’t exist, dumbass.” Blue said. 

“You don’t know that!!” He yelled at Blue. 

“What were you doing at that time, Yellow?” Red asked, trying to stay on topic. 

“Oh! I was sleeping too! I had a really strange dream… I think it had something to do with a talking hotdog??” Yellow told us. 

“And what about you, Black?” Red ignored Yellow. 

Black stayed standing, folding his arms. He was quiet for a moment. “...I was asleep.” He finally said. 

“If you all say so, then…” Red scratched the back of his head. “I was asleep too. We can’t really confirm everyone’s alibis. Orange said he saw everyone was in the room when he got back after fixing the lights though. I just wondered if anyone got up in that short window of time.” 

“Why are you asking us anyway?” Blue said. “We have security cameras for a reason. Why didn’t you check them instead of calling all of us here?” 

“I just wanted to give anyone a chance to admit if they got up in the night… I didn’t want it to seem like I was accusing you guys of something.” Red explained. 

“Well, you failed. It seemed that way from the beginning. Now can we go check the cameras? And can you tell us what the hell Orange saw?” 

“Sure, let’s all go to security…” Red complied. 

We all went to security to check the cameras. We checked the footage from last night. We watched as I patrolled the entire ship, made it back to our room, and saw the lights go out. 

The cameras film and record with a normal lens and a night vision one. There’s two separate recordings for each. When the lights went out and the footage went dark, Blue pulled up the other recording with the built-in night vision lens. 

We watched as I hesitated in the dark, then finally grabbed my flashlight. I walked the empty hallways. Then I got to electrical. I opened the panel and the cut wires were revealed. Everyone in the room tensed at seeing that. Then in the video, I quickly turned around as if something spooked me. Blue quickly rewound the video to watch the scene again. We looked closely to see if I really was the only one in the room. 

“Um…” Pink suddenly spoke, startling us. “Why is the vent open?” Pink pointed to the screen. Next to me, there’s a large vent. I didn’t notice it at the time, but the covering for it is off. 

Blue looks frozen. “...it's always been like that. Right…? Actually, don’t answer that. It’s always been like that and I’m not accepting a different answer.” 

No, she’s wrong… The vents are always covered. I remember how carefully I walked around last night, but if I was a step off, I might have accidentally stepped into the open vent. Those vents are pretty big. A person could probably fit inside. It’s too dark to see clearly from the camera if anyone is inside it. I thought I felt eyes behind me, near the entrance to electrical, but what if it was actually right next to me? What if it came from the vent…? 

Red took over since Blue seemed too scared to continue the video. He stared at the video with his eyebrows furrowed. He played the video, rewound it, fast forwarded it, over and over. He was looking for something. Someone. A glimpse of anything that would explain what happened. He even checked the other cameras, one for each hallway and room in the ship. After a while, Red sighed and backed away. He didn’t find anything. 

“Is it really a ghost, then…?” Yellow asked, trembling with fear. 

“Didn't I say—!?” Blue was about to yell at him. 

“Ghosts don’t exist.” Black suddenly said. We all shut up at his deep voice. 

Then without an explanation, Black grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him out of the room. 

“Hey…!” I exclaimed. I tried to get out of his grip but it was too tight. It only tightened more as I struggled. 

Black just pulled me along, back to electrical. My fear spiked and I struggled even more in his grip. He shoved me into the room, toward the vent. The covering was on it now. When did that happen…? 

“Open it.” Black demanded. 

“What…?” I asked. 

“Open it.” He said again. He pushed me closer to the vent. 

I had no choice but to kneel down and try and open it. How was I supposed to open it…? I tried to get my fingers around the edge of the covering. I eventually did so and pulled it off. It was a bit heavy. I set it aside. I gazed down into the vent. It was definitely big enough for a person if they crouched. 

“Get inside it.” Black said. 

“What!?” Is he for real!? 

Black only glared down at me. He was too intimidating to defy… My hands started shaking. But I carefully swung my legs inside and slid into the vent. I crouched down and I fit perfectly. Black peered inside at me. 

“Now see where it goes.” He said. 

I gulped. I grabbed my flashlight and crawled around inside the vent. I followed pathways and found another vent on the ship. I was able to push the covering off and stand up. 

I saw that I was in security again. There were other pathways to follow but I followed this one and ended up here. Wherever there’s a vent, you can get to that specific room through another vent… Isn’t there also a vent in our sleeping quarters…? A shiver runs down my spine. I don’t like this. Not one bit. 

I close the vent and go back through the pathways, back to electrical. Black is still waiting. Everyone else followed us and have been waiting too. Black lends me a hand as I step out of the vent. I cover it again. I turn to face all of them. I wear a grim expression. 

“You can travel through the vents… to any room with another vent… even our sleeping quarters…” I say. 

Blue looks sick and turns away. Yellow looks like he might pass out. Pink is on the verge of tears. Red looks frustrated. Black wears a blank expression like he usually does. 

“...who knows about the vents?” Black asks. 

“Can I ask you a question? Why did you make me go into the vent!?” I’m still angry that he made me do that. 

“I didn’t know what would happen if you went inside.” Black said. 

“So you sacrificed me!?” 

Black looks away. “You’re also smaller than me. I can’t fit.” 

“Have you even tried…?” I ask. 

“It looks too small.” Black didn’t want to continue this conversation. What, is he claustrophobic or something…? What if I was claustrophobic!? Would he still have forced me!? He’s lucky I’m not… 

Then again, if Black is claustrophobic, then he can’t be the one going through the vents, right? It seemed like he had no idea about them and wanted me to test it. So… who can fit inside the vents and knows about them leading to the other rooms…? 

I actually didn’t want to believe it was one of us who cut the wires and is traveling through the vents. But we’re the only ones here and we’re alone together in space. I was relieved to see everyone else asleep in our room when I got back. But they could have gone through the vents and got back before I did. Someone is lying. They all claimed they were sleeping… Who would lie and want to put us in danger like this…? 

I really don’t want to suspect my crewmates… Those who I went through hellish training to get here with… Those I trusted my life with to try and survive in space together… Those I wanted to be friends with… Is it really one of us who gave off that deadly air when I was in electrical alone…? I can’t believe it… I don’t want to believe it… But you can’t deny that something is seriously wrong.


	2. 2

Everyone claims they didn’t know about the vents either. One has to be lying. But I can’t even tell who. The air is stiff between us now. We’re all suspecting each other. One of us cut the wires and dared to put us all in danger… Someone frightening is hiding in our midst. 

I can barely focus on my tasks but I have to try. We have to make sure nothing else has been tampered with. We have to fix any problems before the consequences from them doom us all. We were brave to sign up for this mission, but space can be scarier than we imagined. Especially if we can’t even trust our own crewmates. 

At the end of the week, we can contact and report our status to HQ on Earth. I’m waiting for that so I can tell them what happened. I feel that we should cancel this mission and go back to Earth. It’s too dangerous to stay here any longer. I didn’t come up here to die. I came up here to be one of the brave astronauts and pave the way for others like me. 

It was the day before the end of the week. Just one more day and I can contact HQ. They’ll see my message and save us. I can only hope for the best. But the imposter had other plans. 

Sometimes we need to do maintenance on the outside of the ship. It’s one of our most dangerous tasks, but we all agreed to do it when it was our turn. Today is Yellow’s turn. We keep an eye on him to make sure his suit is safe. Then we send him out, tethered to the ship. We’re on standby if he contacts us and needs help. 

I continue checking my tasks for the day. There hasn’t been anything more about the one who cut the wires, the imposter among us. Everyone is still a little on edge. I make sure to go to sleep at night and stay with the others. If the imposter is being secretive, why would they strike when we’re all together? 

I’ve noticed that Black is especially on edge. Sometimes I wake up for a moment in the night and see him sitting up. It’s like he’s waiting for the imposter to show themselves. Unless he’s the imposter and is keeping an eye on us…? 

After a while, I go to see how everyone else is doing. I make my way around the ship to see everyone working on tasks or taking a break in the cafeteria. That’s when I noticed. I haven’t seen Yellow. He should have been done with his task by now. He can get back inside the ship himself or he can ask someone to help him, but he doesn’t need to call everyone if that’s the case. I wasn’t called so I wonder if someone else was. I should ask. 

I ask everyone about Yellow and they say that he didn’t call them nor have they seen him around. Blue is annoyed when I ask her first. Pink seems concerned when I ask her. Black is quiet. Red looks concerned too. He decides to go with me to look outside and see if Yellow is still out there. 

We don’t even need to go outside, but instead look out the window. We see the white tether outstretched towards infinite space. But on the end of it, we see… Yellow. He doesn’t have his helmet on. His face is purple and unrecognizable. He died of lack of oxygen. 

There’s a scream. It came from Pink who was behind us. She wanted to follow us to see what happened too. Now she was a frightened mess, sobbing on the floor. The others came quick after hearing Pink. 

I couldn’t believe it. Was that really… Yellow out there? It’s his iconic bright yellow suit, but the head poking out of it is horrifying. This has to be some dream… I want to wake up now… This can’t be real… 

Black clicks his tongue. He storms off. Where is he going at a time like this…? 

Red looks pale and can’t look outside anymore. Blue is horrified and has a scared look that I didn’t expect to see from her. Pink is still a mess. I feel wobbly on my feet. I can’t accept the fact that Yellow is dead. Who could do something as cruel as this…? 

That’s when it hits me. Black left in the direction of the security room. The cameras. They must have filmed the culprit. If we see who it is, we can stop them once and for all! I’ll even be able to report to HQ who it is specifically! 

I try to hurry away on legs that are like a newborn fawn’s. I go along the walls until I can regain my balance. I make my way to security and Black has already pulled up the footage. It begins to play the last scene from when Yellow was still alive. 

The footage shows that Yellow came back onto the ship on his own. He took off his helmet. He began to disconnect the tether from his suit. Then someone came into the room. That someone wore a suit that we didn’t recognize. It was a pristine white suit. They wore the helmet so we couldn’t see their face. They opened the door to the outside and pushed Yellow out before he could even do anything. They kicked Yellow’s helmet out too and closed the door. The mysterious person left the room as if nothing happened. As if they didn’t just commit a heinous murder. 

“Wh… Who…” I said weakly, behind Black. I clung to the wall because my legs wanted to give out. It was so much worse seeing how Yellow couldn’t fight back and was thrown out into space. He didn’t have a chance. He was so surprised by the imposter and helplessly fell back into space. Now his body hangs at the end of the tether. I can’t imagine dying like that… 

Black bangs his fists onto the table. “Dammit!” 

I can no longer hold onto the wall and I sink to my knees. The Yellow I had been getting along with until now… The Yellow that I trained with… The Yellow who was a scaredy-cat and a bit dumb… The Yellow I called my friend… I won’t see him alive and happy anymore. The cruel son of a bitch that did this to him… We have to find out who they are and make them pay. 

“...who has been to storage?” Black asks after a moment of silence. He finds the footage for the room and fast forwards it. 

I pull myself to my feet to stand by Black and watch. It’s no use though, everyone went in there to do various tasks at some point in the day. We can’t tell what’s in the few boxes that some have been seen carrying around. Even if we ask them now, I doubt the imposter would tell the truth. 

“Do we even have white suits…?” I ask. We have our own colored suits, but I don’t remember having extra white suits in storage. We’re used to our colored ones, why would we need white ones? Unless… This has somehow been planned from the beginning…? That seems too impossible to me. 

“...are you saying there might be a seventh person?” Black asks. 

“Huh?” That’s not exactly what I was saying… But the white suit is too weird to me… 

“It’s important to consider every possibility. If there is a seventh person with us, how and when did they get on the ship? Why haven’t we seen them? Do they show up on the cameras? Or do they live in the vents and can somehow get around the cameras?” 

“That sounds too impossible, Black. I wasn’t saying there was an extra person… Unless you can think of a way that makes it possible…?” 

Black thinks for a moment. Then he shakes his head. “So it really is impossible. Then we can narrow down our suspects. The culprit could be among Pink, Blue, or Red.” 

Right… I don’t want to believe it’s one of them… How could it be one of them…? Black can also be considered suspicious, but by his actions… I especially can’t believe he’s the culprit. He’s quiet and seems like the most likely suspect. But I’ve also figured he’s claustrophobic, had no idea about the white suit, and he didn’t take a box out of storage as seen on camera. The three suspects mentioned did and so did Yellow earlier today. None of the cameras showed if anyone changed into the white suit either. It’s a dead end. 

But wait… “I’m not a culprit?” I ask. He didn’t mention my name. 

Black glances at me. “It can’t possibly be you.” 

“Huh!? What’s that supposed to mean!?” Why do I feel like he’s insulting me…? 

“What if I’m the culprit?” Black suddenly says. He stares into my eyes, dead serious. What am I supposed to say to that…? 

“I don’t think you are…” I say. 

“Are you sure? If you’re alone with me, I could have many chances to kill you.” 

I become very conscious of the fact that I am, indeed, alone with him right now. But I’ve already ruled him out. I stated my reasons in my head. They sound reasonable to me. Even if he is scary, big, and intimidating, he can’t be the killer. He doesn’t believe I’m the culprit either, and he hasn’t stated his reasons for it, so can’t we have mutual trust of each other? 

“I still don’t believe you would kill me. I trust you.” I tell him. 

Black searches my face for a moment. Then he looks back to the camera footage. He closes it once he’s satisfied. 

“Let’s keep an eye on the others.” Black says. Then he mumbles, “I won’t let his death be in vain…” 

I watch as Black leaves the room. I was worried that for the rest of my time here, I’d be living in fear. Of course I’m still scared. I don’t want to be the next victim. I thought there would be no one I could trust, just because I would worry if they were the imposter. But Black and I trust each other. We both have someone on our side. I feel more confident that we can track down the killer. I’m sure by tomorrow, we can also report this to HQ and be saved. Just one more night of sleeping with my eyes open. 

I slowly make my way back to the room where Yellow died. I don’t want to see his body again, but shouldn’t we do something with it? Could we bring his body inside and keep it until we get back to Earth to give him a proper burial? Maybe that’s not the best idea… His body will… start decomposing… I don’t like that image at all. I feel sick. 

When I get back to the room, I only see Red. Blue and Pink must have gone somewhere else to get away from the body. I look out the window. Huh? Yellow is gone! 

“Red, where’s Yellow’s body…?” I ask. 

Red hesitates. “I detached him from the tether and he drifted into space.” I see he’s wrapping up the tether now. 

“You did that without talking to us first…?” We could have talked about what to do with him. Maybe the others would have a good idea of how to keep his body until we get to Earth. But Red just let Yellow go without a second thought…? 

“What was I supposed to do? Pink wouldn’t stop crying and Blue was too terrified to move. We couldn’t keep his body here anymore.” Red looks at me with a stern expression. 

I guess… he’s right… Even though I would have liked to find a solution to keeping his body, maybe the reality is that there wasn't a good solution in the first place. Red was just doing what was best for his crewmates. It’s not healthy to stare at a dead body and keep it around… I still can’t get the image of him out of my head… 

“Did you check the cameras? What did you find?” Red asks. 

I can’t even give good news regarding that… This trip into space is now just filled with despair and fear. We have to find the culprit and tie them up until we can get help from Earth. 

“We just saw someone in a white suit push Yellow out into space… We still don’t know who the bastard is…” I tell him. 

“A white suit…? Do we even have any of those in stock?” Red looks confused. 

“We must, right? I don’t know where it came from though…” At the beginning, we all helped pack boxes onto the ship. Anyone could have slipped a white suit into one of the boxes. We didn’t check the boxes again because there were too many. They’re also labeled so if packed them correctly beforehand, we didn’t need to check them again. 

“Alright, I understand. That’s enough thinking for one day, though.” Red pats my shoulder and gives me a smile. It’s his usual reassuring smile. It almost helps me feel a little better. “Let’s get some rest for today to recharge.” 

I nod. I do feel strangely exhausted right now… It’s most likely because of everything I just witnessed. I won’t forget Yellow. How can I? And I won’t forget about an imposter among us. But I feel so drained that I just need a little rest before I can go on… 

Red leads me by the shoulder to the cafeteria. Blue and Pink are there, looking as drained as I feel. Black arrives too. We all take a seat and there’s a long stretch of silence. 

I don’t think I’ve eaten in a little while, but I don’t feel hungry at all. I just want to sit here and stare. I don’t know what else to do with myself. The camera footage plays over and over in my head. I remember walking by that room one time after Yellow went out… If I walked by at the right time, could I have saved him…? I feel so pathetic… Yellow died all alone, knowing who the imposter was just before he passed. I wonder what he was thinking. He clearly looked surprised on the footage. I wish I could know who it is already… 

I glance around at everyone at the table. Blue. She’s usually mean and sometimes I’ve wondered if she’s so cold-hearted, that she wouldn’t care about someone’s death. She seems to find everyone annoying. Like she has no faith in us, or humanity in general. But since all of this has started, I’ve seen a different side of her. She can obviously feel fear. She’s obviously distraught over seeing Yellow. If she wasn’t, then she’d be a likely candidate for the imposter. I’m not so sure if she’s the imposter though. 

Pink. You could call some of her nervous behavior suspicious, but that’s just how she is. Even though I haven’t talked to her too much because of her shy demeanor, she seems kind and caring. She could have followed me and Red to see Yellow purely out of curiosity, but I want to think it was out of concern for him. She even began sobbing like I’ve never seen someone cry before. You can’t fake those tears, right? She also looks too delicate to be an imposter who is capable of killing others. 

Red. When we first met, he was a bright light and immediately tried to become friends with everyone. He’s like a reliable older brother. I was very happy to have someone like him on the team. He’s kept us together, like a leader, even when we struggled to live together on Earth for a time. Blue was a bit uncooperative, but Red talked with her and tried to have her open up to us. Now she mainly just tolerates us. I don’t think our team could have successfully completed our training if he wasn’t there. I seriously can’t imagine that a great guy like him could be the imposter. He’s been there for me through this crazy experience. He came with me to check the wires, he helped question the others about it, and even today, his hand on my shoulder and his smile was so reassuring. He just can’t be the imposter. 

I’ve ruled out everyone… No one seems like they can be the imposter… But that’s impossible, right? It has to be one of us. Unless someone else really is hiding on the ship? Black already ruled that out though. Ugh… I’m getting a headache from all of this… I don’t want to have to think anymore at all… I just want to mourn Yellow’s death silently.


	3. 3

The next day, we can finally contact HQ at a certain time. I was antsy and anxious the entire time I waited. I couldn’t even really sleep last night. I was too worried about the imposter and the events of the day. Every time I closed my eyes, I’d see Yellow’s face again. It was awful. I didn’t have much of an appetite this morning either. I still sat in the cafeteria, bouncing my leg, hoping time would go by faster so I could contact HQ. That’s when I saw Pink with a box of Yellow’s stuff. 

“What are you doing with that?” I ask her. 

“Oh… Um… I wanted to package Yellow’s stuff together… We can give it to his family and offer our condolences… And maybe they’d let us be a part of the funeral ceremony for him… I’d like to give him a proper send off… Even though we can’t do it here…” Pink’s eyes still looked red from crying. I understand how she feels… 

“I see. Good idea. I’ll talk to HQ today and we can definitely get Yellow’s stuff back to his family.” 

Pink perks up. “HQ? That’s today? I almost lost track of time… Oh thank goodness… We can be saved…” Pink looks on the verge of tears again. 

I awkwardly pat her back to comfort her. I’m not sure how to comfort anyone… Especially in this situation… But I think I’d like someone to pat my back and comfort me too. Pink seems fine with it and sniffs back her tears. 

Then I hesitate. Should I ask…? I could at least gauge her reaction to see if she might be lying. “Pink… Do you have an idea as to who the imposter could be?” I ask. 

Pink looks up at me, a little confused. “The… imposter…?” 

“Yeah. The one who cut the wires, who knows about the vents, who pushed Yellow into space while wearing an unknown white suit…” Yesterday, Red brought up what I told him to everyone so they all knew about what Black and I saw on the camera footage. They were too depressed to answer. 

“The imposter…” Pink repeats, thinking. “I’m not sure… I don’t want to doubt anyone…” 

I don’t want to doubt anyone either. It feels awful. And thinking one of us killed Yellow like that… I still can’t wrap my head around it. I don’t want to believe any of this is because of one of us. 

“Well… If anyone seems suspicious, tell me and Black. We’re trying to look for the imposter together.” 

“Black…?” Pink’s eyes widen. She looks away, nervous. “I’m not so sure… about Black… I said I didn’t want to doubt anyone… But Black scares me more than anyone else…” 

I guess that’s understandable. Black is taller and bigger than me, even though I’m about average height for a man. Pink is even shorter than the average woman. Black must seem like a giant to her. Black’s demeanor is intimidating in the first place. But I trust Black. 

“That’s alright, then… You can just talk to me if you want. I’m not the imposter and I trust you aren't either. Let’s try and look out for each other.” I tell her. I do believe she can’t be the imposter, but since I can’t be 100% sure, I don’t know if I’ll trust her completely yet. 

Pink nods. Then she gives a small smile. “I trust you, Orange.” Then she walks away, to go tape up the box with Yellow’s belongings inside it. 

For some reason, her words hit straight into my heart. I felt she was telling the truth. She trusts me. I feel a little guilty now… If she seems to trust me that much, I should trust her just the same… But I’m not sure if I can right now. I pray it isn’t her. 

I glance at the clock on the wall. It’s almost time to contact HQ! I hurry to communications to be there on time. I bump into Black on the way. We share a look and then head inside together. I sit in the chair in front of the computer. There’s only one chair, so Black stands behind me. 

There’s a light next to the monitor that’ll go on when HQ is connected. There’s a couple more minutes until it’s supposed to go on. I get things ready on my end and wait. Black and I wait in silence. Finally, the light goes on. HQ begins to connect on screen. 

Anticipation constricts my throat. What do I tell them first? I have to get out that Yellow has died and there seems to be an imposter aboard and we need help. I really hope they can help us soon. They have to cancel the mission and give us instructions for what to do while help comes. I feel lost without their instruction already. 

HQ finally connects. There’s the sound of static and some crackling. 

“Hello?” I ask. “Can you hear me? Crewmate Orange, reporting.” 

There’s more static and crackling. Then I get a “h…..hello……” in the middle of loud static. 

“Yes, hello? I can barely hear you. Can you hear me?” 

Only static and more crackling. I can’t tell if anything is coming through. I don’t know if they can hear me. We tested communications before the trip. Why does it seem like it’s not working now? If HQ can’t help us… then what do we do…? Dread washes over me. My heart pounds in my chest. We’re all going to die. 

Suddenly, Black puts his hand on my shoulder. He leans over to mess with the computer, seeing if he can fix the problem. The static gets quieter with whatever he does. 

“Hello?” Black asks. “Crewmate Black, reporting. Is this HQ? Can you hear me?” 

Nothing. Oh god, we’re really done for. There’s a psycho on the spaceship and they’re going to kill us all. At least, that’s what I assume. Why are they here? Why’d they mess with the wires and kill Yellow? What is their purpose here? Are they not going to stop until we’re all dead? Why? What happens after that? Does HQ already know about this…? 

Then, through the static, we hear something. “Your… mission…. is to…. survive….. do not… let…. the imposter… kill you all….. or…. you will…. fail…. good… luck…..” 

HQ disconnects and the light goes off. I’m frozen solid. What was… that? Did I hear right? HQ knows… about the imposter… and that they’re trying to kill us…? Is this even allowed? Isn’t this illegal?? Did HQ just send us to our deaths up here!? What the hell is this!? And “good luck”!? Fuck you!! I would have never signed up for this program if I knew it was some ploy to put on a sick game of murder!! 

I’m so angry at this stupid space program that I thought was safe. I’m so angry at HQ and the imposter for deceiving us. I’m so angry…. at myself. Shouldn’t I have realized something was off? If I realized way in advance, before we even got up into space, Yellow would still be alive. I never said I’d be a part of something dangerous like this!! None of us signed up for this! I thought we were just going to be brave astronauts… Who could inspire others who want to try and figure out the mysteries of space… But it was a complete hoax… I’m such a dumbass… 

“Was that really HQ?” Black asks. I look up at him. 

“Who else could it be….?” I say, still pissed. 

“But it doesn’t make sense. What does it all mean? I thought our mission was to help test run the spaceship for others more qualified to use on longer missions. If we succeed, we know the spaceship will be fit for others to use, as long as they complete their tasks everyday like we did. But what’s this about a new mission? And an imposter trying to kill us all? Nothing about this was in the documents we signed. Nothing was said to us. We trained for a normal mission, not this. This is definitely illegal.” 

I stand up. “This has obviously been a set up from the start! The imposter has been in on it the whole time! Of course it’s illegal! We didn’t sign up to die! If I get out of here alive, I’m exposing the corporation for what they are!” 

Black shakes his head. “It still doesn’t make sense. This corporation is so big, and so many applied for it and passed the entrance exam. Only we were chosen this time. If they’ve been doing stuff like this from the start, why haven’t they already been exposed? Even if the imposter killed everyone, what about the victims’ families? They didn’t suspect the corporation for being at fault when their son or daughter didn’t come home?” 

“I… I don’t know…” How can Black be so calm and think about things like that in this situation…? I don’t understand him. I’m so worked up. But he brought up a good point… I still don’t understand any of this. 

“I guess it’s true we’ve never heard any bad news about the corporation. They’ve actually had a good record of successful space missions. They’ve had older models of spaceships, and claimed those on those ships all came back safe. So maybe they’re only giving this mission to us? But why us? Why now? It’ll still be bad when Yellow doesn’t go back home to his family when the mission is over.” 

I pause. “I know we probably have to think about those things… but isn’t there something more important to think about right this very moment?” 

Black looks at me. 

“The imposter.” I say. “We have to find them… and stop them. The message from HQ didn’t specify how we were supposed to complete the mission, but maybe it’ll work if we out the imposter, and of course tie them up so they can’t do anything anymore.” 

“You’re right. The imposter hasn’t made another move and I can’t tell who it is yet. Let’s keep what HQ said to us a secret for now. If the others ask, we can say that HQ is sending help. Because they will be soon since we’ll stop the imposter.” After saying that, Black leaves the room. 

I hold onto the chair to steady myself. My headache has come back and hurts even worse now. HQ’s message has made this more real than I would have liked. Of course Yellow’s death made everything real first, but HQ’s message has sunk into me. And now it’s just filling me with complete and utter despair. 

Black somehow seems confident… I feel like if anyone, he could survive. But what about me? I’m completely average. I barely passed the entrance exam. I messed up a little in training. And I still can’t tell who the hell killed Yellow and wanted us all to suffer like this. I’m useless… I’m bound to die here… I don’t want to die… I really don’t want to… If there’s a God out there, please save me… 

“God, you look pathetic.” A voice behind me. I whip around to see who. It’s Blue. She still looks a bit drained, but she can manage to insult me again. She was leaning against the doorway. Then she moves away from it and enters the room. “Did HQ say to fuck off or something?” 

I hesitate. Black told me to keep this a secret. It’s probably a good idea. We don’t want to worry the others, and we also don’t want the imposter to know that we know. But maybe they knew HQ was going to say that when they talked to us. Is Blue the imposter and she’s come to finish me off because of HQ’s message? 

“...did they really say something like that…?” Blue asks, looking worried. 

I snap out of it. “No, uh… Sorry… We talked to them and they’re sending help. I don’t know how long it’ll be.” 

Blue looks a little relieved. Then she eyes me. “‘We’? Who was in here with you?” 

“It was Black. We bumped into each other and both talked to HQ.” 

“Black…” Blue thinks for a moment. “You don't think he’s the murderer, do you? I guess you’d probably be dead now if he was.” 

It seems like everyone doubts Black… but I really can’t doubt him now. He even grabbed my shoulder earlier to calm me. At least I think that’s what that was… 

“I don’t think it’s Black.” I say with confidence. 

Blue searches my expression. Then she shrugs and turns around. “Well, I don’t trust anyone right now. Although, you’re probably not the killer. You’re too weak and pathetic.” Then she leaves. 

I feel a little hurt at that… No one thinks I’m capable… But they’re right. I don’t want to be the imposter anyway. I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t want to be a part of this at all… 

I leave communications after Blue, feeling a bit weak. Blue didn’t try to kill me. The worry I saw across her face when I didn’t answer immediately seemed genuine. She seemed like her usual self, with no indication that she could be the imposter. I’m just ruling everyone out again. Who could be so cunning that they could lie to all of us and act kind when they plan to brutally murder us all…? 

I go back to the cafeteria. I feel exhausted again. I collapse onto a table. It’s cold. I wonder if the imposter is going to kill all of us now… They probably know about HQ’s message… And if they know Black and I heard it, they’re probably going to come after us first… I have zero confidence that I can survive against them… 

Just then, someone slaps my back, hard. I immediately sit up and look around. I see Red grinning at me. 

“What are you doing? Did you talk to HQ?” Red asks. He thinks it’s so funny to slap me on the back… I hate it… But him grinning and having fun helps me feel at ease, even for just a second. 

“Yeah…” I look away. “They’re sending help… I don’t know how long it’ll take though.” 

“Really? That’s good.” Red sits down next to me. 

I nod. “Yeah.” 

Silence stretches between us. 

“Why don’t you seem more happy about it?” Red asks. I look at him and he’s smiling kindly. 

“I am happy. I’m just nervous… Will help come in time…?” 

“I see.” More silence. “But aren’t you lying to me?” 

“Huh?” 

“Orange!” Pink calls my name and hurries over to us. When my name is called, I automatically look over at Pink. But then I glance at Red again because I’m still confused as to why he would say that. His smile is gone as he looks at Pink. It sends a shiver down my spine. 

Pink puts her hands on the table and leans over, almost forcing me to look at her. “You talked with HQ, right?? What did they say?” She’s eager for the answer. 

“Uh… They said they’re sending help… Hopefully it comes soon.” I tell her. 

Pink leans away, looking relieved. It looks like she can breathe easy again. But I’m actually lying to her… I feel bad… But more than that, something else is bothering me. I glance at Red again. He’s smiling, seemingly happy at Pink’s relief. Like he never looked at her with a different, more ominous, expression. Was I seeing things? No, the fear… I still feel it inside me…


End file.
